HVAC units are used to control climates within closed spaces, and most often living spaces. These units, or systems, typically contain at least one thermostat hard wired to the system. In recent years, the trend has been to incorporate wireless thermostats into these systems. These wireless thermostats provide flexibility within the system and greater user control.
However, depending on the location of the system free access to these thermostats is not necessarily desirable or placed in optimal locations. The location of these thermostats is vital to accurately measuring the average room temperature. Additionally, advances in technology have created intelligent thermostats capable of employing built in learning algorithms over numerous complex sensors. These advances have also led to the advent of expensive touch capacitance screens increasing the overall cost of the unit to produce and operate, as well as a more finite control per temperature zone.
Previous attempts to solve this problem have resulted in unsightly covers and locking mechanisms to prevent manipulation of the system. These aftermarket attachments often are bulky and use a key to gain access to the system. Thus, the loss or misplacing of a key results in a loss of access to the system.
Additionally, some systems display the temperature for a given area, but this may not represent the temperature for the complete coverage area of the systems (i.e. one room in a house). This result is brought forward due to different rooms, offices, etc. being located in different designated climate zones. The inability to observe each specific temperature results in constant manipulation of the system in an attempt to achieve the desired results.
With the advent of the smart phone as a common graphical user interface controller, the standard thermostat command and control learning activities can be shifted directly to the user. This creates a thermostat of a much simpler design and provides added efficiency and control to the HVAC unit as a whole. In turn, by using a smart phone as a common graphical user interface controller, one can remove the programming buttons and display from the wall unit preventing others from accessing and manipulating the system.